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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28163562">A Mother's Love</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CourageousJS/pseuds/CourageousJS'>CourageousJS</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Mirrorball [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 18:40:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>533</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28163562</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CourageousJS/pseuds/CourageousJS</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The night before Fergus leaves Claire and Jamie to go to his father's for an extended holiday. Jamie's POV and Claire's loss explored in this one-off snippet</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Claire Beauchamp/Jamie Fraser</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Mirrorball [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2063250</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>48</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Mother's Love</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Physical distance between a mother and child is unnatural. To carry and conceal its life with her own for the better part of a year, holding it close from all harm, to having it suddenly carry her own heart outside her body. It was an intimate and supernatural phenomenon that mankind alone couldn't come close to drawing a comparison. Jamie had often thought so, of how much he missed his own mother like the ache in his soul would never heal from the pain of not knowing the woman who carried him, who contained the power within her to both give him life and leave him his entire life with the greatest gap nothing could fill. He was in wonder at the chasm that mere absence left. </p><p>And now. Seeing Claire and how it weighed on her, his own heart cracked anew at her pain. The night before Fergus had left for the long holiday, Claire alternated between not letting him go and stepping away so he wouldn’t see the silent tears that would constantly well in her eyes at the sight of him. Jamie kept his space as he watched her lie with him in his bed, her arms around him as he tossed and turned and finally fell asleep against her. He thought he heard her voice as she whispered to him and kissed his head, her avid prayers creating a web- a shield- around her beloved boy. How she must have hoped, searched, sought heaven for an answer that her son would be safe. To no avail. Jamie himself was powerless to reassure her as well. He held her hand and dried her tears and said little, and when it counted- like now, in the little room, drawn dark for the night’s sleep- Jamie gave them space. Claire was a powerful woman, maybe her prayers and projection of love and safety for the boy was a strong enough spell for the child to take into the dark of the world and return unscathed. </p><p>Jamie would admire her for years to come, each year full of just as much pain as the first time. Every year she would go into his room the night before and sit up with him most of the night, just watching him, praying. And every year he would quietly step to the background, to let Claire soar like a firework into the darkness of the nights without her boy. Her prayers held aloft by the flame in her soul, too bright to ever burn out. Jamie knew in his heart, Claire’s protection over Fergus was more powerful than death itself. It would abide with the boy until he was a man, and then an old man, carrying his mother’s protection spell of love long after she had ceased to walk the earthly realm. Such was a mother’s love. </p><p>It was a gift that was not earned or asked for, but simply given to men from the unending depths of a woman's soul with no thought to her own survival. </p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Lord, let him be protected. Keep him safe for both my Beloved and me. And bless this rare woman I am lucky enough to call my own. </em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This goes hand in hand with Mirrorball, a working idea that I wanted as part of a chapter but works better as a stand-alone one off. As I approach the holidays I am keenly aware of other mothers out there, having to separate from their children due to court ordered schedules. I pray this snippet helps touch your hearts as it does mine. </p><p>May your little ones come home soon and safely, may our prayers cover them and hasten their return to us.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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